Morocco’s edtech Smartprof has secured $110,000 in pre-seed investment from UM6P Ventures, Plug and Play, alongside other investment angels.
Founded in 2021 by Hamza and Mustapha Faiz and Ali Faouiz, the edtech aims to become a one-stop-shop edtech platform for private tutoring in North and West Africa, a market that is worth billions of dollars according to the startup.
Smartprof will deploy the new funding into extending its footprint in Morocco and West Africa and hire further developers to improve the product’s quality.
Private tutoring has experienced significant growth due to the increasing competition for space in public education systems. The sharp growth has stirred up startups across the region to begin to digitise the private tutoring experience and plug the gap in attainment for families and students relying on this type of education.
Mustapha Faiz said, “We launched Smartprof after noticing that the private educational system was failing in Morocco. We were convinced that every student needs some kind of private assistance in order to overcome the challenges faced at schools. The private tutoring market is very fragmented; finding a tutor is a nightmare. Additionally, there’s no visibility on pricing, so there was a real need for a tech product that creates a great tutoring experience.
“One of the major challenges of our company is the complex and poor payment infrastructure in Morocco. But the market opportunity for us remains huge, that’s why we try to adapt as much as possible to a very rigid banking system.”
Smartprof raised $50,000 earlier in July and it is backed by different institutions such as l’École Centrale Casablanca and UM6P startup campus, Startgate.
